Unscheduled loadshedding irks people in Punjab

Angry residents staged protest in many localities and blocked Multan Road in Lahore to protest against prolonged load-hedding. Lahore like many other cities of Punjab has been in the grip of over 18-hour loads-edding, making life miserable for the people. The irked people blocked the Multan Road and pelted buses with stones. Police reached the spot shortly in order to disrupt protesters. The protesters also canted slogans against the government. The protesters were of the view that continuous power shutdown is badly affecting business and daily life of the people. Lahore witnessed worst kind of unscheduled load-shedding on Saturday night and most localities of the provincial capital remained under darkness for virtually 24 hours. The areas which were affected by long hours of power shutdown included Muslim Town, Johar Town, Icchra, Muzang, Gulberg, Baghbanpura, Batapur.
Faisalabad has too been boiling with the same sentiments. This Manchester of Pakistan is a victim of 14-18-hr loadshedding and as a result its once fabled textile industry has become a vegetable deep in the rot.There in Chichawatni people besieged a grid station but to no avail, as it didnt earn them what they were protesting to have. In export-industry-hub, Sialkot load shedding-beaten traders observed complete shutter down strike on the appeal of Markazi Anjuman Tajran Sialkot in protest against 20-hour long daily power outages in Sialkot. The traders, who kept their shops shuttered down, staged a big demonstration here at Allama Iqbal Chowk against the prolonged power outage. The traders wore black arm bandages carrying agitational banners and placards. The protesting traders also burnt tyres on roads and kept the traffic blocked on various inter-city roads for an hour. They also warned to besiege all the Gepco offices on Sunday and Monday, besides staging agitational sit-ins there. While talking to the newsmen, President Markazi Anjuman Tajran Sialkot Mehar Ghulam Mujtaba said that the perturbed Sialkot traders would not pay their electricity bills in protest against the unending and unscheduled load shedding of electricity.
In Gujranwala, protesters blocked roads for ten hours and burnt tyres. The protesters alleged that load-shedding has affected the routine life. Police reached the spot and tried to disperse the protesters through talks. However, it later baton-charged protesters on failure of dialogues.
A report Sunday said that power shortfall has grown to 10,000 megawatts from 7,000MWs the other day.